Flatt puts Olympic scoring behind her, heads to worlds

WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

When: Through Saturday

Where: Palavela Arena, Turin, Italy

Schedule: The ladies short program is tomorrow morning PDT. The free program is Saturday morning.

TV: Universal Sports (Ch. 136 on Time Warner, Ch. 117 on Cox) will show the ladies short program live at 8 a.m. tomorrow (re-air at 5 p.m.). The free program is live at 7 a.m. Saturday (re-air at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.).

Rachael Flatt’s daily routine is as tightly choreographed as her skating programs. Wake up. Go to high school. Head to the rink for practice. Back to school. Back to the rink. Physical therapy. Dinner. Homework. Bed.

She skates the same way, clicking off one element after another with a seamless fluidity and sublime grace and uncanny consistency.

In other words, there aren’t a lot of surprises.

So imagine Flatt’s utter astonishment when, fresh off what by all appearances was the skate of her life in the Olympic free program, the scores popped up at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver and she plummeted to seventh place after flirting with a medal. Imagine her frustration a month later, when she and her coaches still don’t know why.

And imagine the relief knowing that tomorrow and Saturday, the girl from Del Mar gets a chance to rectify it all at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin, Italy. Flatt was fifth last year in her worlds debut at skating’s senior level.

“I’ve watched the replays a couple times,” Flatt said of her Olympic free program, where judges mysteriously downgraded both her triple-flip jumps. “I guess I’m still looking for something that’s very obvious … Hopefully I won’t have that issue at worlds.”

Added coach Tom Zakrajsek: “Since we have no transparency in the ISU (International Skating Union) system, there is no point to dwell on it. No, we do not understand why she was downgraded from the videos we have watched, but we do not have access to the ISU camera feed, which is different from the NBC or (Canadian TV) feed.”

The prevailing hypothesis is that Flatt under-rotated her triple flips — usually among her best jumps — because she wasn’t high enough. The technical panel meets before a competition to decide areas of emphasis and interpretation, and the triple flip apparently was on the agenda in Vancouver. Other skaters were downgraded as well, but it did not appear to be consistently enforced across the entire field.

Flatt, certainly, was the biggest victim. Zakrajsek estimated the downgrades cost her 10 to 12 points, which would have put her solidly in fourth.

“It was heartbreaking to not have the ideal point total I was looking for,” Flatt said. “But now that I’m reflecting on the Olympics, knowing I skated my heart out in both my programs, sometimes that can be enough. Sometimes it doesn’t go quite the way you wanted, despite how hard you trained.

“It’s a good life lesson.”

Unlike the other skating disciplines, which have been decimated by big-name withdrawals in the hangover of the Olympics, the ladies competition is nearly the same as in Vancouver. Gold medalist Kim Yu-na is in Turin. So is silver medalist Mao Asada and 2007 world champion Miki Ando of Japan. So is Italian Carolina Kostner, who was second at the 2008 worlds. So is American Mirai Nagasu, who was fourth in the Olympics.